In a drive control apparatus for providing a drive control to a hybrid electric vehicle by driving drive shafts connected to traction wheels by composing output of an engine and outputs of first and second motor generators, there is a technology of: calculating a charge/discharge power target based on a battery SOC (state of charge) together with calculating a drive power target requested by the vehicle driver based on a drive torque target, which has, as parameters, an accelerator pedal position and a vehicle speed, and the vehicle speed; calculating, as an engine power target, the sum of the calculated drive power target and the calculated charge/discharge power target; and calculating an engine operating point from the calculated engine power target (see Patent Literature 1, for example).
In such drive control apparatus for providing a drive control to a hybrid electric vehicle, first and second motor generators are controlled to operate in power running mode or regenerating mode together with controlling the engine torque and speed so that the engine may operate at the calculated engine operating point target (see Patent Literatures 1 and 2, for example).